“It looks downright ugly!” “The old KTM RC 390 looked far better than this.” The comment section of each and every publication was flooded with comments like this. People’s rants regarding the new RC 390 commenced right after the first set of spy pictures surfaced on the internet. Things didn’t change much even when the 2022 RC 390 shed its veil officially. It is almost criminal to pass judgements on a vehicle that we haven’t even seen in the flesh and even more nefarious is to completely ignore the performance aspect of the motorcycle.
KTM has made some huge improvements in the updated RC 390 and KTM’s star boy Rok Bagoros was kind enough to showcase it in front of the world.
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He recently posted a video on his Instagram handle where he can be seen testing the performance of the new RC 390 and guess what? That 2-minute video footage is enough to shut everyone up who thought that the new RC 390 is all about ruined aesthetics.
The results
The new RC 390 decimates the 0-100 kmph run in just 5.14 seconds and that people, make it a bit faster than its previous iteration by some margin. It isn’t ‘considerably’ faster but it is faster and that is exactly what matters, right?
Things become a little more interesting when Rok attempts a top-speed run. It is pretty evident that the new RC 390 is punchier in the upper spectrum of the rev-range as well as it manages to clock a respectable 180 km/h on the speedo! We thought that the best it would do would be somewhere around 170-175 km/h but it kept going beyond that. Moreover, Rok also mentioned at the end of the video that there was still some juice left in the motor.
What makes it faster?
During the start of the video, Rok mentions all the things that contribute to its stronger performance and that include better aerodynamics, lighter wheels, bigger airbox and more torque. The chassis is now 1.5 kg lighter and the five-spoked alloys are 3.4 kg lighter. The brakes have also been redesigned and together have shed 960 gm of weight.
The new RC 390 will be powered by the 375 cc single-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine that produces 44 hp and 37 Nm torque. The airbox volume is up by 40% which has enabled the bike to produce more torque. The bike can now achieve a top speed of 181 kmph which is 11 kmph more than the old bike.
Still think that the old RC 390 is better than the new one?